Tanweer means enlightenment in Arabic. Since 2015, YES Egypt alumni have been spreading enlightenment in 13 regions across Egypt via their Tanweer project. The goal of this ongoing initiative is to help disadvantaged children ages 8 to 14 develop by working with local NGO’s to organize local skills-building workshops. The initiative was created with the goal that it will serve as a model that can be replicated in cities all over Egypt.

The most recent incarnation, Tanweer Green Roofs, involves a collaboration with the NGO Schaduf.

Schaduf empowers and sustains Cairo's low income communities through rooftop farming and urban gardening. The Arabic word "schaduf" refers to an ancient irrigation tool, which lifts water to irrigation canals. Schaduf was founded by two brothers, Sherif and Tarek Hosny, after volunteering on a farm in Louisiana in December 2010.

Schaduf provided training to YES alumni on how to create and sustain rooftop gardens. The alumni then returned to their regional chapters to train other alumni and to begin involving local children in the construction of rooftop gardens in their community.

In August, YES alumni conducted a training of trainers (ToT) on service project development with 6 American students in Egypt on an AFS Global Prep program. The workshop involved sessions on needs assessment, team-building, volunteer management and project planning. The Tanweer Green Roof project served as a case study and participants were able to get hands-on experience by working on the gardens and learning about each stage of the project’s development.

Alumni continue to work on scaling up the Green Roofs project. They have started pilot programs in 14 different venues in 13 chapters. They are working on creating an illustrated toolkit (CD and booklet) for each venue to help others in replicating the project. Alumni meet with the children every 2 weeks and have created a WhatsApp group to help them monitor the project and share experiences. A movie documenting the project is also in progress. Stay tuned!